Patients undergoing hip fracture fixation surgery who received spinal anesthesia had reduced 90-day mortality relative to those receiving general anesthesia, in a new study. The study also found spinal anesthesia to be superior to general anesthesia with respect to rates of pulmonary embolism, major blood loss and hospital length of stay.The study was a propensity score, matched-pairs cohort study.The main comparison was between spinal and general anesthesia, and the primary outcome was 90-day, in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included 30- and 60-day mortality, hospital stay, pulmonary embolism, major blood loss and major acute cardiac events.A total of 883 patients in the spinal anesthesia group were matched to patients in the general anesthesia group. The investigators revealed that patients who received general anesthesia had a greater 90-day mortality (8.6%) than those who received spinal anesthesia (6.3%). Mortality did not differ significantly at the 30- and 60-day time points.Spinal anesthesia was also found to result in significantly decreased rates of pulmonary embolism (0.5% vs. 2.3%) and major blood loss (4.8% vs. 7.7%). No differences were found between groups with respect to length of stay or major cardiac events.“In conclusion, our study suggests that spinal anesthesia may be the preferred anesthetic technique for patients undergoing hip fracture repair. We believe a spinal is a great alternative to general anesthesia for typically frail hip fracture patients.” the authors noted.Read more here: https://pxmd.co/neIXJ